THE “S” WORD

July 23, 2009 by Clark Kellogg

It’s hard to find a person who is against sustainability. I can think of only two people I know. Sustainability is in the same league as Motherhood and Apple Pie. But in most conversations, sustainability’s approval rating nosedives somewhere between 14 and 31 seconds later. That’s usually the time when the gauzy notion of sustainability inevitably gives way to defining what it is (30 point drop in approval rating) or doing something about it (free fall).

What’s going on here? For one, humans are good at using our big brains to know a lot. But it doesn’t always translate into doing a lot. Second, we are on sustainability overwhelm. Staying current is like drinking from a fire hose – everyday.  And that’s hard to swallow.  Third, amid this explosive growth in knowledge and information the very meaning of sustainability has been diluted to the point of meaning just about anything, and thus meaning nothing.

We all support motherhood, apple pie and sustainability. We know what the first two mean and we know how to create them. Not so for sustainability. Even the Brundtland Commission’s definition – development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs  – is difficult to apply to the here-and-now of one’s own life. Paper or plastic?

Without an explicit shared agreement about the meaning of sustainability even the well-informed and well meaning among us cannot make much progress. Indeed, this lack of clarity enables avoiding the most neglected problem in sustainable design today: time. There are many projections about when catastrophic environmental events will take place (GHG, ice shelf melting, sea-level rise, water wars). It’s hard to know how accurate they are and it doesn’t matter. The plain fact is that we don’t have time to wait and find out if the projections are correct. What matters is taking smart bold steps now because here’s what we do know: the longer it takes to start meaningful healing of the earth, the less likely we are to have a viable future. In short, we don’t have time to waste.

Is there any hope? Yes, and its not false hope. Design – and design thinking – as a set of solution-seeking tools is spreading to every corner of the world. Indeed, we are all designers now and optimism is an onboard skill of designers (sustainable or otherwise).  More importantly, healing the earth is igniting the largest movement of human energy in the history of the planet. It is a movement without precedent; amorphous, unorganized, instinctive, and blessedly uncontrollable. Literally billions of people are on the job. It is already the single largest public works project ever.

If we can get as good at making sustainability as we are at making motherhood and making apple pie we just could be very happy, be well-fed and live long, balanced lives. Cloth or disposable?

THINK LIKE A DESIGNER

June 13, 2009 by Clark Kellogg

“Everywhere you look today, Design has taken on new meaning. Design isn’t just about decoration; it’s a critical component of how we communicate, collaborate and compete. But behind the “look and feel” of any good design are a host of carefully conceived principles; fundamental propositions that define the essence of the design. The trick is to learn those underlying rules–to think like designers.”

- “Design Rules,” Fast Co. Mag, October, 1999

Two things about this quote stand out. First, it recognizes design as a

useful process beyond object-making. And, it was published ten years ago. It was also ten years ago that I started teaching a course at UC Berkeley’s architecture school called, “Beyond Buildings; New Sites for Designers.” The purpose was to help students understand what habits of mind they come to know (often tacitly) through the design studio sequence of classes. Then, we looked at how those skills can be used to make things other than buildings. Over time, that work has boiled down to a list of qualities – or habits of mind – that one could arguably title “How to Think Like a Designer.”

It would be foolhardy to claim this list is absolute or even complete. It has started many conversations and some debates. We are reproducing it here in that spirit. For now, here is the whole list. Your comments and insights are welcome.

Design Thinking: Clark Kellogg’s Ten Habits of Mind:

1. Focused Creativity

2. Generous Collaboration

3. Drawing and Thinking in Pictures

4. Comfort with Ambiguity

5. Non-linear Information Processing

6. Multiple Solutions

7. Learning by Doing

8. Communicate for Understanding

9. Charrette Culture: Shaped by constraints and bounded by time

10. Curiosity is better than Judgment

Clark Kellogg, Partner, Collective Invention

From his perspective as a consultant, architect and graphic designer, Clark holds forth on Design At Large in the D/Views Blog. Clark Kellogg is a designer and partner at Collective Invention, found HERE